


our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up

by redkay



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-26
Updated: 2014-09-26
Packaged: 2018-02-18 21:37:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2362958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redkay/pseuds/redkay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first thing Mickey says to him when he gets back is: “Did you really steal a helicopter?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up

The first thing Mickey says to him when he gets back is: “Did you really steal a helicopter?”

They run into each other, quite literally, on the street outside the Alibi. Ian had been trying to weasel his way into a job with Kev and Mickey was juggling six sets of sheets. The voice in his head, the one that always sounded a bit like Lip, wants to ask if there’s a sale at Bed Bath & Beyond.

“No,” Ian answers, then amends, “Well, not successfully.”

Mickey snickers and the corners of Ian’s lips twitch, and something cold and tight in his chest starts to thaw.

**

Ian gets the job, because Kev is a pushover, but he’s cleaning toilets and mopping up vomit, because Kev is also kind of an asshole. 

“You missed a spot,” Mickey says, because he’s got a sixth sense for honing in on Ian when he’s on his hands and knees. Ian glares up at him as menacingly as he can manage while holding loofah. Mickey balances on the back legs of the chair, his feet on the table in front of him. “Who the fuck cares if the floor behind the juke box is clean anyway, it’s not like anyone can see it.”

“It’s the principle of the thing,” Ian mutters, going back to his work. 

Mickey scoffs. “And what were the principles behind stealing a helicopter?”

“Mainly that it looked like fun.” Mickey somehow manages to convey that he’s never believed anything less in his life with a single cocked brow, and Ian sighs. “I don’t know. Haven’t you ever just known things are going to go to shit eventually, no matter how good they seem now, so you try to speed up the process? Because enjoying it now just means it’ll hurt more later, and you don’t want that, so better to fuck it up than take your chances?”

Mickey doesn’t answer, and Ian continues scrubbing. “You know, no one’s asked me that yet,” he says eventually, thinking of how he settled back into the Gallagher house the same way in which he left it: without any fanfare or attention. 

“Your sister is feeding toddlers cocaine for dinner. You’re going to have to do a bit better than grand theft aircraft if you want attention in your family.” Ian tosses the loofah at his head; Mickey catches it handedly with a snort. 

“It was an accident,” he defends, half-heartedly. 

“What the fuck is this,” Mickey asks, examining the loofah with disgust. “How the hell did the army make you gayer?”

“It’s Fiona’s,” Ian says, making a grab for it. “And I need it back, there’s congealed vomit that must be from the sixties down here.”

“You throwing it out when you’re done?” 

Ian shrugs, not meeting his eye. “She’d be pissed if I did. Says it’s softer and less cum-stained than our washcloths.”

“I can’t fucking believe people think you’re the nice one,” Mickey says, lobbing it back with a grin.

“Yeah, well,” he says. “They never find out, do they?”

**

“The fuck does ambience have to do with fucking?” Mickey grumbles, kicking over a chair. 

“Plenty,” Ian says, picking up the overturned chair and flipping it upside down, on top of the table. “Kash lit a bunch of candles in the backroom once and brought a boom box down to play Don McLean. Definitely one of the best fucks we ever had.”

Mickey rolls his eyes at him. “Did it make you forget about his gorilla penis?”

“...his what.”

“Gorilla penis. They’re like, freakishly small or something.” Ian stares. “Cable company fucked up, started broadcasting the Discovery channel all week. Shut up.”

“Right,” Ian says, drawing out the vowel. “Anyway. But yeah, that’s the basic idea. You set the right mood and you can forget how fucked up the whole thing is. You know, the wife and kids shit. Or that you’re paying a Russian hooker five bucks for a hummer above a bar.”

Mickey glares. “So you think she’s right, I should shell out even more fucking money so that some sad sack can play make believe that he’s not too pathetic to get a date?”

“You could probably charge more if you make the experience more, you know, genuine, or whatever. But it’s up to you, you’re their pimp.”

He finishes clearing up and heads towards the bar where Kev leaves the keys to the place. “C’mon, I’m closing up, unless you feel like sleeping here.”

“I never lit candles,” Mickey says, offhand, with a touch of derision. It still comes out a little questioning.

“You didn’t need to,” Ian says. “We weren’t pretending.”

Mickey stares at him for a long moment from across the bar. Finally: “Tell me, do you actually piss the rainbows and unicorns, or do they only come out when you shit?”

Ian grins, and shuffles him towards the door. “You made me pizza bagels. You had oven mitts and everything.”

**

He’s not entirely sure how he got roped into helping Mickey decorate his brothel, except that it involved a promise of a lot of alcohol and very little decorating, which turned out to be fairly accurate.

“You left,” Mickey says, only slightly slurred and falling a little short of accusing. 

“So did you,” Ian points out. He’s not mad anymore. When he looks back, he thinks maybe he was always mad about the wrong things, anyway.

“Yeah. You gonna do it again?”

“Probably,” he says, smiling. He’s seventeen and he’s in love, but there’s still the faint, coppery taste of blood in his mouth and even when he looks back at the past few months and thinks of all the things he should’ve done differently, he knows somehow that they would have fucked it up anyway, eventually. “You?”

“Probably."

Ian leans forward, but Mickey's the one who closes the gap, and he thinks maybe the best things aren't supposed to last forever.


End file.
